Harlingen SouthBy Mark Molina | Valley Morning Star
HARLINGEN — On Tuesday night, the Harlingen South Lady Hawks looked competitive for most of their match with McAllen Memorial.
Finishing games, however, proved to be the downfall for the Lady Hawks were eventually swept by the Lady Mustangs 25-16, 25-21, 25-12.
Brian Molina’s Lady Hawks jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead to start the night, but the Lady Mustangs found their footing and won the game by nine points, setting the tone for the rest of the match.
South head coach Molina felt that his team may have missed some opportunities during those close sets.
“I saw some good things tonight. We let a couple of points get away and we gave up a couple of free points,” Molina said. “Against a good team like that you can’t afford to give them anything free.”
The Lady Hawks fell behind in the second game by as many as five points, but were able to get back in the game.
They never got within one point, taking the wind out of the Lady Hawks’ sails heading into the third game.
Following the second set, the Lady Mustangs — led by Taylor Marburger (21 assists, two kills, five digs and two aces) and Allie Nitsch (12 assists, six kills, six digs and three aces) — kept their foot on the gas and cruised in the third set.
“We’re in the process of trying to make the offense work and getting out the kinks by limiting our errors,” Lady Mustangs head coach Lorena Lopez said.
“We try to run a quicker offense and with that come more hitting errors. We were able to take the momentum. We were neck in neck during the first two sets and kept on that wave with the first two sets in our pocket.”
The Mustangs trailed 5-4 briefly in the final set but finished the set on a 21-7 streak.
For Molina and the Lady Hawks it’s a learning process before the district season begins.
“Credit to Memorial, they’re a very well-coached team. Those are the types of teams we need to play to get ready for the tough district that we’re going to have,” Molina said.
“We need to clean up our passing, cut our errors and toughen up mentally.”
The Lady Hawks were led in the losing effort by Emily Susen’s eight kills, eight digs and four blocks.
Meanwhile Miranda Valdez recorded three aces, one kill and 10 digs and Lexi Kruse had nine assists, six digs and a block.